George Rogers Clark was a Virginia surveyor, soldier, and militia leader who rose to become the greatest American republican military commander in the American Revolutionary War's northern frontier. Throughout much of the conflict, he was the head of the Kentucky army. During the Illinois Campaign, he is most remembered for his recapture of Kaskaskia and Vincennes, which significantly undermined British control in the Northwest Territory. In the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the British handed the whole Northwest Territory to the United States, and Clark was dubbed the 'Conqueror of the Old Northwest.'

Clark's biggest military accomplishments happened before the age of thirty. Following that, he commanded militia in the early battles of the Northwest Indian War but was suspected of being intoxicated on duty. Despite his call for a deeper inspection into the allegations, he was humiliated and asked to resign. He fled Kentucky for the Indiana border, but Virginia never completely compensated him for his military expenses. During his later decades, he struggled to avoid creditors and lived in growing poverty and isolation. He was a participant in multiple unsuccessful tries to enter the Spanish-controlled Mississippi River to American trade. He became a cripple after having a stroke and having his back ankle amputated. Family members, especially his youngest son William, one of the commanders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, assisted him in his later years. On February 13, 1818, he died after a stroke.